Yet Another Awesome Blog

LOLCAT Of The Week: INVISIBLE VIBRATOR!

2007-06-30T13:53:00.001-04:00

LOLCATS are awesome and I can't get enough of them. Here is a totally brand new LOLCAT that I put together but can't take credit for since the image and caption were provided by Yasemin who appreciates the lolcats almost as much as I do. Hopefully this makes the rounds and spreads all over the internet. You can easily make your own by visiting the Cheezeburger Factory section of ICanHasCheezeburger.

The picture is an ad for catfood found in a US weekly magazine.

Trade Gold With Zecco Trading: Get $4.50 Stock Trades

2009-08-04T09:38:00.007-04:00

Have you lost a bundle because of the stock market. Has your 401k been cut in half? Then you need to take control of your own finances and trade stocks for yourself. Now is a good time to get in and trade gold as inflation is due to come home too roost later this year. I personally have made 125% ROI this year alone on trading just one gold mining stock, AUY. It is sure to increase in price as inflation drives down the value of the $US. It is one of the most volatile gold mining stocks on the exchange which makes it great for trading. I routinely make 5% trades in the same week.

Zecco Trading: Get $4.50 Stock Trades

Invest the smart way with Zecco Trading. Stock trades cost just $4.50. Get 10 free trades per month with a $25,000 balance or 25 trades/month. No account minimums or inactivity fees. Member FINRA/SIPC.

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Domaining In Troubled Economic Times

2009-05-10T17:21:00.009-04:00

Times are tough right now and when times are tough you have to make money in any way you can. One of the things I do to make a buck besides blogging is domaining. Think of domaining as investing in "virtual" real estate. I buy domain names and develop the website and place Google AdSense ads on it. I build up the traffic to the site and get ad money from clicks on the ads, typically up to 3% of visitors will click on an ad. Depending on what the content of your site is about you can get like $0.10 a click or even upwards of $3 per click.

If you are interested in buying domain names I strongly suggest you use 1&1 to register the domain name. Prices are typically $10 a year per domain name but at 1&1 you can register your domain name for only $8.99 and if you catch a deal you can get it for $6.99.

New! Just $6.99 .Com Domain from 1&1. Free privacy included. Free Site builder + email.

Auto Show New York 2009 Review Part 1

2009-04-21T16:11:00.008-04:00

Went to my first auto show in 4 years and i forgot how critical comfortable shoes are! This auto show had the spectre of a bankrupt auto industry hanging on life support. The tension was thick as thousands of spectators looked at cars they mostly would not be able to afford anytime soon.

The theme of the show was "hey look at me, I'm fuel efficient now!" It seems every major car company was calling out some kind of fuel efficient hybrid of some kind. Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was how Hyundai was making a big push to be the Samsung of the auto industry to GM's Sony. It is making major improvements in styling while remaining value orientated. However, it does seem to be trying to reposition itself into more than a competant import car comparable but cheaper than a Japanese car. Even their concept car was one of the better ones out there with its gull wing doors.

I was surprised with the Hyundai Genesis and Genesis Coupe. I had never seen it before and it is definitely making a run to take market share from Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. The second big surprise was how determined Ford was to have a significant presence at the show. They had their "booth" very close to the entrance as to guarantee that they would not be skipped over by the many attendees. One of the Ford cars at the show was in my opinion poorly thought out though it did photograph nicely.

NY Auto Show 2009 Slideshow

How To Rent Out A Room In Your Apartment

2009-04-09T01:35:00.006-04:00

I'm not sure I should be the one writing this because I am having trouble doing this right now myself but I am following some basic good practices. I blame the economy and rising unemployment for my difficulties and not my own marketing skills. But like one of the motto's I like to live by "always be testing," I will share with you some of my experiments in my adventures in renting out a room in my apartment.

The first thing I did was take measurements and pictures of the room once it was cleared out and cleaned. Then I took pictures of the room with my digital camera and resized and optimized the images for the web with some touch ups in Photoshop here and there where appropriate. All the pros use Photoshop so you should too. Getting your hands on Photoshop is easy enough (contact me if you need it) it is learning how to use it that is harder but not that much harder.

Next I went around the neighborhood and took photos of some very convenient places in the neighborhood and uploaded them to my Picasa Web Album and geo tagged them. Geo tagging is a very nice feature that will help me position the apartment as a very convenient place to live. Then finally I did a crude listing on Craigslist and edited it continuously with an HTML editor. I used Dreamweaver. Take a look at Craigslist listing 3.0 for my room for rent in Woodside, Queens.

If any of you have any good ideas for listings you have seen let me know. In version 4.0 I will have a short video of the actual time it takes to get to the train (about 3 minutes).

First Post From An iPhone

2009-01-18T20:23:00.003-05:00

This is my first blog post made from an iPhone. I have to input text in HTML mode. I do not like to use punctuation because you have to switch keyboards to get to it. This is why this post will be short. I might go back and edit this post from a pc to add a picture and links.

Selling Structured Settlements - Domaining For Money

2008-12-22T02:27:00.023-05:00

A few months ago I started investing in domain names, a name that identifies one or more IP addresses. It is basically like real estate but online. Virtual real estate if you will. On average domains will appreciate around 35% a year. This is significantly better than real estate's 10% appreciation per year (over a long timeline). Lately real estate has been depreciating hard so it does not even compare. What's more, you don't need that much capital to get into the domaining game.

Since I am an SEO professional and recognize the importance of ranking high on the organic search results, I have used a strategy for buying domains that is different from most other domainers. I bought domains for the keywords within them with the intention of developing them slowly over time for very specific highly targeted keywords. With time it will gain visibility on the search engines that will help build up the amount of natural search traffic making the site easier to eventually sell. Here is an example of what I mean.

Selling Structured Settlement Group
The following domains all revolve around "selling structured settlements," a particularly expensive KW according to Google. Check out SpyFU for a list of keywords with the highest cost per click.

http://www.selling-structured-settlement.com
http://www.structured-settlement-investment.com
http://www.sell-structured-insurance-settlement.com
http://www.sell-structured-settlement-payments.com

I am making a bet that keywords in the domain are going to be a very important factor for search engines when determining the relevancy of one site for a particular keyword search over another. So far I have found that this works best on Yahoo and MSN than on Google. Also I will populate the sites with original content over time, as well as video's and pictures, and taking advantage of the slow adoption of optimizing your site for universal search.

The added bonus. Since I work as an SEO I need my own websites to experiment on and try new strategies for ranking higher. I can't do this with client sites since I need their permission to make changes and often time deal with other agencies just to get something implemented. This makes me a better SEO and can help me command a higher salary later. Also, by running ads on the domains I make some kind of an income while I wait for traffic to build up. This gives me an opportunity to experiment with different ad networks and different payouts. It's like real estate in that I can build on it and add value to it (add unique content) and then flip it while it makes me income (ad revenue). I will update this blog with new learnings from my adventures in domaining as well as other investment vehicles. Comments are welcome!

In Search Of The Best Free Web Analytics Solution

2008-04-27T14:09:00.007-04:00

I have been using 2 different types of free Web Analytics solutions for this blog, StatCounter and then when it became available Google Analytics. Both are free, and both have pleased me so far. I also have My Blog Log code installed but its not that good IMHO. In fact I will be removing that soon after I publish this post. It collects too much data anyway.

What a difference a year makes. Now there are a slew of free Web Analytics tools out there for me to try - and try them I will. On this site I will be adding Crazy Egg, Clicky, and Robot Replay if I can get it to work on this Blogger site. Each one has unique features that I really like. Crazy Egg has a cool section where I can see a heatmap of where on a page the mouse is clicked the most. Clicky has a sweet Ajax interface with a lot of segmenting options. Robot Replay lets you see a movie file of your visitors interactions with your site. Its like looking over the shoulder of some stranger using your site. Now that's hot!

Both Clicky and Crazy Egg have different paid for service levels. Crazy Egg pricing plans range from $9 a month to $99 a month. Clicky pricing plans go from $3.99 to 16.99 a month but gets cheaper if you sign up for a year. I will follow up with my review of these Web Ax tools as I collect more data with them.

Yet Another Pointless Site: How Many 5 Year Olds Could You Take In A Fight?

2007-12-14T15:12:00.001-05:00

I was busy at work one day saving the planet from big evil corporations that siphon the world's resources on pointless products like a USB noodle strainer, when a colleague at work sent me a link to How Many 5 Year Olds Could You Take In A Fight? The URL was awesome so I had to click on it. I have often pondered this scenario in my head and according to my calculations I figure I could take out about 35 kids minimum. Check out my score below.

24

While you took this test over 1,000 children died of preventable diseases and or hunger. =)

Writing With Light: Slow Shutter Photography

2007-11-04T20:28:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from last weekend. My batteries ran out but I managed to snap some nice flix. Here I was having some fun with slow shutter photography. Small point and shoot cameras tend to suck at night and with no tripod it can be hard to get a nice photograph. Might as well play with the settings to get something a little more abstract but still interesting and compelling.

I am very interested in nature, design, architecture, and city planning. So I tend to take pictures of highways, roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, and nature (in a huge metropolis). Here is my BQE series highlighting my 2nd most favorite expressway in NYC. The Grand Central Parkway is my favorite because I drive it all the time and has generally less traffic than the super congested BQE, but not nearly as nice views.

Time To Face The Strange: Changes or WTF Is Happening To Me?

2007-10-29T20:11:00.000-04:00

Lately I've noticed that my voice has been changing. I think I may finally have hit puberty like I read about in the books. I can't really be sure why it is but its different at least for now. I like to sing along to music, usually at home when no one is around or in the car by myself. I've noticed that certain songs I used to be able to sing along to are now out of range. My voice will just crack or altogether disappear. I suspect it may have something to do with smoking cigarettes but no other smokers I know has ever experienced such a change in such a short amount of time. Well it has also allowed me to sing along to a bunch of songs I previously could not. So here is my cover of the new Foo Fighters song off their new record Echos, Silence, Patience, and Grace, Come Alive.

Lyrics and guitar tab

Foo Fighters - Come Alive

Review Of The New Foo Fighters Album Echoes, Silence, Patience, And Grace

2007-09-15T19:53:00.000-04:00

After waiting 2 years since 2005's double disc "In Your Honor" the Foo Fighters finally dropped a new album "Echoes, Silence, Patience, And Grace." Dave Grohl and company have done it again. This time around Dave is sporting long hair as in the early Foo days of over 10 years ago. I think its official Dave Grohl will be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice joining legends such as Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Paul Simon, Neil Young, David Crosby, Curtis Mayfield, Steven Stills, Sam Cooke, and Jimmy Page.

Please note that I don't give lyrics as much weight as melody, musicality, composition, the overall feel of the song, and how memorable it is. I think music is universal and should be able to communicate without one understanding the language.

First Thoughts
I heard that Steely Dan was a big influence on this album, I'm not really familiar with their music outside of their more mainstream hits, but I suspect I know what parts are derived from them. There is definitely a common thread in many of the songs, especially the ones that start off soft. They start off acoustic like songs off of In Your Honor but then crescendo into hard rocking Foo Fighters style. Finally, there are many moments where a particular line gets repeated many times usually to bridge the movements in the song. This happens on at least 3 of the tracks, Let It Die, Come Alive, and But Honestly.

The Good

Track 1: "The Pretender" (4:29)

This is the first single off the new album. It came out in August and has a slick but good video. The Foos seem to have 2 kinds of videos, the serious artistic kind like "All My Life," and "Best Of You," and then the silly kind like "Breakout," and "Learn To Fly" (I wish they would stick to the serious kind). This song is typical kick ass Foo rock. It has a nice quiet, loud, quiet, really loud dynamic that is everywhere on this album. It opens in an A minor arpeggio that remenisint of Stairway To Heaven.

Track 2: "Let It Die" (4:05)

This is one of those songs of theirs that starts off soft, gentle, and sparse but then gets big and rockin. No surprise there since the Foo Fighters are influenced by his former band (Nirvana) and The Pixies (Gil Norton produced several Pixies albums and the Foo Fighters' The Color And The Shape and this album). This is one of the best tracks on this album and possible in the entire Foo Fighters library of great songs. Can't wait to see this song performed live.

Track 3: "Erase Replace" (4:12)

This is one of those straight rockin' numbers. It is another badass rock song that will be a crowd pleaser when played live. It is more sophisticated than other Foo songs in the same genre. The intro starts of complicated, the verse is simple, the chorus crescendos, then the bridge takes it to another place. The bridge, simple soft but textured and complex, is my favorite part of the song.

Track 4: "Long Road To Ruin" (3:44)

This is a radio friendly and at 3:44 running time radio ready pop rock song. The Foo Fighters can still write a radio friendly song to pay the bills. This is not one of my favorite songs on the album but it is notoriously catchy and good for what it is a pop rock song destined for radio. The record company probably begged them for a song like this, and they delivered.

Track 5: "Come Alive" (5:10)

This is one of those very transitiony songs and shows that the Foo's are growing as musicians and in crafting songs exploring new areas that they haven't before. It was only a matter of time. This song features a different tuning with the high e string tuned up a whole step to F#. Again in this song there is a lot of repetition of the line "come alive," but its used in such a good way that it only adds to the power of the song. Usually repeating any one line too much can kill a song, but they do it masterfully on at least 3 occasions this being the best example. This song clocks in at just over 5 minutes but it doesn't seem that long at all. Kudos to the Foo Fighters on yet another brilliant song.

Track 6: "Stranger Things Have Happened" (5:20)

This could have been on disc 2 of "In Your Honor," its a Foo ballad. A folky sound is all over this album but never sacrificing melody and attitude. This is a very nice acoustic number that is mostly just Dave with a bit of accompaniment here and there. Songs like this really make this album stand out to me. I don't see a video being made for this or it ever getting on the radio. However its gems like this that make checking out an album totally worth it.

Track 9: "The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners" (2:32)

Dave Grohl wrote this instrumental piece for 2 miners in the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania, Australia, in 2006. A few days after the collapse, while the rescue was still being planned, one of the miners requested that an iPod be sent down to them, filled with Foo Fighters songs. Dave Grohl heard about this story, and wrote a note to them stating, "Though I'm halfway around the world right now, my heart is with you both, and I want you to know that when you come home, there's 2 tickets to any Foos show, anywhere, and 2 cold beers waiting for yous. Deal?" The men were safely rescued, and one took Dave up on his offer, at a Foo Fighters acoustic show in Sydney. Grohl played this piece for the meeting with the miner, and assured him it would be on the next Foo Fighters album. This all instrumental number is unlike anything the Foo Fighters have ever attempted and is actually a very nice guitar song. He is really stretching his ability on this one.

Track 10: "Statues" (3:47)

Here is another song I suspect is influenced by Steely Dan. This is a Foo Fighters song that grew out of the piano, a first for the Foos. This is definitely unlike anything they have done before and they do it very well. They are really crafting some beautiful songs on this album that are more rich and complex than anything they have done before. This is another standout for this album.

Track 10: "But Honestly" (3:47)

Yet another song I suspect is influenced by Steely Dan (I really should check them out). It starts off sounding a lot like the opening from Floaty off of their first album, then goes to a place all its own. Another of the songs that start off softly and then crescendos. This time it is done by repeating "I give it to you" to dramatic effect. Yet another brilliant song on this album. They are on a tear.

The So So

Track 7: "Cheer Up Boys, Your Makeup Is Running" (3:40)

This is a radio friendly and at 3:40 running time radio ready pop rock song. The Foo Fighters can still write a radio friendly song to pay the bills. This is not one of my favorite songs on the album but it is notoriously catchy and good for what it is a pop rock song destined for radio. The record company probably begged them for a song like this, and they delivered.

Track 12: "Home" (4:45)

This song is closes out the album oficially and contains a lyric which is what the album is named after, "echoes, silence, patience, and grace." Its a nice song with mostly piano but it's just not as good IMHO as the rest of the album which is pretty damn awesome. So in comparison its not as good, but it sure is better than "Tired of You."

Track 13: "Once And For All" (3:48)

This is a bonus track so I don't really count it that much, and I really haven't given it too many listens to fairly review it but it just does not compare to the other great songs on this album. I read other reviews that this has some good guitar riffs and drumming, but nothing really stood out to me.

The Bad

There was nothing on this album that I would say is bad. I wasn't crazy about some songs but they may grow on me.

Overall I would place this as their best album ever, ahead of their self titled debut album and In Your Honor which would have been a killer one CD album but still a very good double album. This album really shows their maturity as songwriters and performers. This album is for the fans who have been following them from over 10 years ago and are older, wiser, and have a more discerning ear. They have just raised the bar with this album and will be hard to top themselves. I wish they swapped out a few songs or left them as B-sides like "Cheer Up Boys," but the record company probably begged them to keep it in there. I could have done better with an old Foo song that never made it on a studio album like "Damn You, Damn Everyone" or even a cover song. Still kudos to Dave and the rest of the Foos for creating another brilliant album.

On a scale of 1 to 100 (because a 5 star rating system is not fair).

Echoes, Silence, Patience, And Grace scores a biased 91 and is totally worth checking out if you are into rock and roll or the Foo Fighters. This is one of the best albums they have put out and will be listening to this record for years to come.

Modern Classics: John Lennon - Love (Acoustic Cover)

2007-08-31T12:49:00.000-04:00

Here is another gem of a song written by one of the most successful singer/songwriters in history, John Lennon. He is a master at crafting beautiful songs with many classics to his credit. Paul McCartney is actually the most successful songwriter ever and is brilliant in his own right, but Lennon was always the better lyricist in many people's opinion. I have to agree with that, he puts more effort in his lyrics. This isn't a great example of great lyrics but it does the job. I like the juxtaposition in the lyrics. The song has a clear structure and is a good example of how it can benefit the song.

There are tons of songs written about love but this is one of my favorites because its a little more removed but still very moving, and its simply called "Love." This song is pretty but kind of sad, kind of like Love itself. It makes good use of 7th chords without sounding too silly, it is actually quite a serious song. On the original song its played on piano, here is my rendition on guitar. Again I do not do the original any justice, but I do love this song.

John Lennon - Love

(D)Love is (F#m)real,(C#7)real is (F#m)love.
(D7)Love is (G)feeling,(A7sus4)(A7)(A7sus2)(A7)feeling (D)love
(F#m)Love is (Em7)wanting, (A7)to be (D)love.

(D)Love is (F#m)touch,(C#7)touch is (F#m)love.
(D7)Love is (G)reaching, (A7sus4)(A7)(A7su2)(A7)reaching (D)love.
(F#m)Love is (Em7)asking, (A7)to be (D) love.

(D)Love is (F)you, (G)you and (D)me.
(D)Love is (Em)knowing, (G) we can (D)be.

(D)Love is (F#m) free, (C#7)free is (F#m)love.
(D7)Love is (G) living, (A7sus4)(A7)(A7sus2)(A7)living (D)love.
(F#m)Love is (Em7)needing, (A7)to be (D)love.

John Lennon - Love (Acoustic Cover)

In Loving Memory of Jet Espinosa. May You RIP 1996-2007

2007-08-24T18:03:00.000-04:00

August 24 2007 approximately 1PM Jet my second dog passed away after being diagnosed with heart disease since December of 2006. It has now been confirmed that his heart exploded. His little lungs were filling with fluid, making it difficult to breath. His heart was expanding and was bound to give out sometime this year. He was 11 but still passed for a puppy in the eyes of many. Sadly, he died a virgin never knowing how it feels to be inside someone else's body. He was the son of Junior, a handsome chihuahua indeed, and a true gentleman of a dog. He enjoyed scaring little children, starting doggy beef with dogs 3 times his size, and trying to hump his father. He never cared much for chasing after anything. He had problems with anxiety in general because of growing up in a tumultuous household. He was afraid of going down the stairs of my building after taking a tumble early in his career as a pet. He liked to lick my face often trying to get at the boogers in my nose.

This really couldn't have happened at a worse time. The old saying when it rains, it pours is seeming very true as of late. Seems like nothing can go right for this blogger. Even traffic has gone down significantly. This is probably one of the worst summers ever for me, and definitely the worst August ever. Something good has to happen soon or else I don't know what I'm gonna do. I believe everything tries to balance itself out, even luck. I figure I'm due for some good luck to come around my way. I played the Mega Millions, maybe that pans out, or maybe I hit the jackpot in Atlantic City. What's gone so bad to merit such luck you ask. That's for an upcoming blog post.

I dedicate this song in your loving memory, the song you were named after. By Paul McCartney and Wings with power mullets and all. Here's to you old friend.

Modern Classics: Radiohead - There There (Acoustic Cover)

2007-08-21T08:14:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately a lot of rock music on the radio and MTV today is lacking in quality. There are some bands however that have come out since the 90's that are shoe ins to make it into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Some of these have to be Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Oasis, Blur, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, and of course Radiohead. There are many more to include but few are as deserving as Radiohead.

Not only are they an amazing band with great songs, they are brilliant songwriters that have written some modern classics, that is they are destined to be classics and be listened to forever, kind of like Pink Floyd. One fine example is their first single off of their latest studio album Hail To The Thief, There There.

This song starts off with an unique drum groove that really sets the tone for the song. It has a song structure that has it crescendo, it builds up in emotion and power saving the best for last. It has verse, prechorus, verse, prechorus, bridge, chorus, chorus, solo, chorus, chorus. Few songs execute a structure like this and make it work so well.

I'm not really sure what this song is about. But it seems like its about being alone in a world that seems so different than from what you are, an alienated soul. It could also be about unrequited love. Its hard to say with lyrics so purposefully ambiguous. Regardless, its a beautiful song that is as emotionally stirring as it is badass.

Here is my attempt of doing a cover of this great song. Of course I butcher it since no one can ever have such a man pretty voice like Thom Yorke.

Radiohead - There There Lyrics

Verse
in pitch dark
i go walking in your landscape.
broken branches
trip me as i speak.

Prechorus
just 'cause you feel it
doesn't mean its there.
just 'cause you feel it
doesn't mean its there.

Verse
There's always a siren
Singing you to shipwreck
(Don't reach out, don't reach out Don't reach out, don't reach out)
Steer away from these rocks
We'd be a walking disaster
(Don't reach out, don't reach out Don't reach out, don't reach out)

Prechorus
just 'cause you feel it
doesn't mean its there.
(theres someone on your shoulder)
(theres someone on your shoulder)
just 'cause you feel it
doesn't mean its there.
(theres someone on your shoulder)
(theres someone on your shoulder)

Bridge
There there!

Chorus
why so green and lonely?
and lonely
and lonely

Chorus
heaven sent you
to me
to me
to me

[SOLO]

Chorus
we are accident waiting,
waiting
to happen.

Chorus
we are accidents waiting,
waiting
to happen

Radiohead - There There

Cover Songs: The Beatles - Across The Universe

2007-08-11T18:04:00.000-04:00

Here is an example of brilliant songwriting by The Beatles. This is a John Lennon song 'Across The Universe" that has his patented progression XM to X7. This song has been covered by Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainright, David Bowie, Sean Lennon, Phish among others. This is off their Let It Be album. Of course I don't do this song justice but its a very pretty song with colorful lyrics and I kind of like it.

The Beatles - Across The Universe (Acoustic Cover)

My First Bachelor Party

2007-08-06T18:47:00.000-04:00

Caturday night is for debauchery and that is exactly what was delivered for my good friend Fernando's bachelor party. Too bad he will not remember most of it. Good for him that for once I do and even have pictures to prove it. The bachelor party was being held at a restaurant called Mustang Grill & Tequilla lounge located on 85th street and 2nd avenue. I arrived late to find that the strippers had already arrived and were writhing on the floor. My inner pervert rejoiced but I was mostly interested in eating since I hadn't eaten all day except for a couple of pints of Guinness which is almost a meal in itself. The only food I found was a handful of fried calamari but no marinara sauce. WTF?! I was a bit ticked off at that and told the dude to get some more grub out soon or else.

I proceeded to get the nourishment I needed by hitting the open bar. I didn't want to go overboard which has been the trend lately so I got some Coronas to start. It was a Mexican food place after all. Tequilla shots followed but it was not enough to convince me that it is way too early for strippers to be here. After all we had until 1AM, by this time it was like 8:30PM and I already missed a good hour of stripper action. I continued to battle with my old foe tequila. I won the battle this time by not letting him do me in. In our lifetime matchups its been Tequilla 17, Malcolm 4. Today was different, I was actually able to hang. Drink count so far 3.

There were 2 sets of 3 strippers. The first batch was pretty wild but they were there so early and I missed out on a lot of the stuff. They did whip out some interesting props. By props of course I mean sex toys, a whole assortment that included, dildos, double dildos, anal beads, and strap ons. We were treated to some good girl on girl action with the bachelor getting the best view of it all. Drink count 5.

As usual they were not cool with taking pictures. We did manage to get a few shots in however. When the strippers left it was back to the sausage party, but by this time the food had arrived. We ate, drank, caught up with some of the people I haven't seen in a while. Drink count 8. Three more strippers were on the way.

It was still early maybe 10PM and we had booked the place until 1 so it looked like I should pace myself with the drinks from here on out. The strippers arrived and performed on top of the bachelor taking full advantage of his inebriated state. He did not last much longer and halfway through the show he had to get up and puke not more than 5 feet from our beloved strippers. What a n00b. His bro and best man took him to the bathroom to help him recover. I would have helped too but I pretty much missed out on the first set of strippers so I had to play catch up. They were actually kind of lame compared to the first set and definitely left earlier than they were supposed to. What a ripoff! More drinks please! Drink count 10. To add insult to injury the open bar was closed. WTF! and they told us our party was over even though we had it booked till 1AM. It was not even midnight and it was done. Best man fucked it up with the choosing of the location and lousy, though raunchy strippers. Hey Xeno, thx 4 da tirdz!

Now this was my first bachelor party of what I'm sure will be many more. This is by default the one to beat, not that that says much.

LOLCAT Of The Week: THX 4 DA TIRDZ

2007-07-26T09:52:00.000-04:00

LOLCATS are awesome and I can't get enough of them. Here is a totally brand new LOLCAT that I made, hopefully makes the rounds and spreads all over the internet. You can easily make your own by visiting the Cheezeburger Factory section of ICanHasCheezeburger.

Da Winner

When someone dicks you over or brings more work your way you can say hey buddy, thanks for the turds, or just send this pic to them. Thats how we do it. You'll be surprised how much you need to say it. No rly!

1st Runner Up

This is funny, but I can't take credit for this one. I think we all can relate to this on some level. I'm seriously considering getting cats just to take good pictures of them to make lolcats of them. I wonder how cooperative they would be. Nothing a little maryjane couldn't fix.

Cleveland Cavaliers Advance To 2007 NBA Finals To Face San Antonio Spurs

2007-06-03T15:27:00.000-04:00

Revisiting Predictions for NBA Finals 2007

A little while ago I wrote a post about how I predicted the Detroit Pistons would beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Easter Conference Finals and go on to face the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007 NBA Finals. Well it seems Lebron James didn't like that prediction one bit and decided to drop 48 points in game 5 and go on to lead the Cavaliers to victory at home in game 6. Thank you Lebron for fucking up my prediction and making me look bad, you selfish asshole!

Actually I like Lebron James very much, he is a beast of a player, a true freak of nature at 6'8 and 240+ lbs that can run down the court faster than almost anyone in the NBA. He is the most physically talented player in the league but his teammates are a bunch of underachievers that somehow piggy backed to the 2007 NBA Finals. Maybe I'm not giving them enough credit, but the Spurs are a super experienced team with great chemistry and a great knowledge of the fundamentals of the game, not to mention the intangibles (psychological warfare).

I really used to like the Spurs because they are not flashy but get the job done night in and night out and they do it and done right. But they win championships every other year it seems and I'm sick of it. I always root for the underdog and in this case its Lebron and the Cavaliers.

What it will take to beat the Spurs?

Bruce Bowen is the best defender in the league and he is great at being a dirty player and getting away with it which is a rare talent in itself. He really earns his pay come playoff time almost always having to guard the opposite team's best player (Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Deron Williams, and Lebron James in the 2007 NBA playoffs). Will he be able to contain Lebron? Probably he will. So its up to King James to dig deap and pull off a Michael Jordan performance come playoff time. Look for the Cavs to take Bowen out of the series early either by getting him in foul trouble or just plain old hurting him with a dirty foul (like sticking a foot under him when he is coming down from a baseline 3 point shot so he can roll his ankle). If the Cavs manage to neutralize Bowen, Lebron will average an easy 32 ppg in the finals.

Bruce Bown guarding Lebron James

The Cavaliers young up and coming star Daniel Gibson will have to have another great series to cancel out the Spurs deep and talanted bench which includes Argentinian gold medalist Manu Ginobli (another player good at being dirty and getting away with it). Tony Parker is probably getting some good lovin' from Eva Longoria and not stressing the finals. Updates coming soon.

Music Reviews: 40th Anniversary of The Beatles Experimental Album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

2007-06-04T08:12:00.001-04:00

It was 40 years ago today, that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.

This past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of what is widely acknowledged as the most influential album of all time - The Beatles Sgt. Peppers album. This 8th studio album by The Beatles was a huge breakthrough at the time and is their most celebrated record to date. The album art alone, designed by Peter Blake, deserves tremendous accolades. This album came out at a time when The Beatles were dissatisfied with the rigors of touring the world especially not being able to hear themselves play amid the screaming fans. The concept was to send a record out on tour instead of themselves. The concept album was actually Paul McCartney's idea.

"'Pepper' was probably the one Beatle album I can say was my idea," McCartney told Rolling Stone. "It was my idea to say to the guys, 'Hey, how about disguising ourselves and getting an alter ego, because we're the Beatles and we're fed up. Every time you approach a song, John, you gotta sing it like John would. Every time I approach a ballad, it's gotta be like Paul would. Why don't we just make up some incredible alter egos and think, 'Now how would he sing it? How would he approach this track?' And it freed us. It was a very liberating thing to do."

To celebrate this milestone many artists are covering songs from the album if not recreating the album in homage. Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, The Fray and Razorlight and others are among the rock groups getting together to record songs from the monumental album. I will try to cover some songs as well and post them soon. You can find some good Beatles covers on YouTube like Jeff Beck's instrumental rendition of "A Day In The Life."

At the time when the album came out The Beatles were experimenting with a lot of mind expanding drugs in particular LSD and marijuana or as I like to call it my only real friend. I guess sometimes winners do use drugs. By the way you know a woman is cool nowadays if she listens to The Beatles.

Sgt. Peppers Facts

Two of the original songs written for the album were "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" but they ended up being chosen as singles by the record company instead.
Sgt. Pepper Reprise was performed and recorded live.
The whole album was recorded on a two 4 track recorder run together in synch.
Not yet available on iTunes.
1968 Grammy winner for album of the year.

Buying A New MP3 Player When An iPod Just Won't Do

2007-07-11T08:13:00.000-04:00

I'm in the market for a new MP3 player. Its been a while since I shopped around for one. I recently lost my beloved iRiver 320 after 3 years of being together. Now I know everyone has an iPod but this just won't do for my purposes. I need something easy to carry, big enough hard drive or flash memory, and it must have a built in mic for recording voice or anything else. This is critical and this is where the iPod fails. Sure I can get the mic attachment but this makes for a big fumbly device that is just too expensive to justify. I'm willing to spend $300 tops, maybe a bit more if I can get more use out of it. Here is what I'm looking for:

Plays MP3s
Plays Ogg Vorbis files
Plays MP4 video
Records to MP3 from built in mic
Not fragile
Good Battery Life
Plug and Play

Finally after much research I decided to get the Creative Zen 30 Gb MP3 Player. It beat out the rest because it has a bigger color screen than the iPod. In fact it is strictly widescreen similar to the Apple iPhone. It also was availeble on eBay fro less than $150 . I forgot to keep track of the bid but ended up buying a similar one for $175, $25 more than I was about to spend, but still its a worthy investment if it turns out to work OK.

Lately I've been having too many emotions bottled up that it was leading to increased creativitly that I have to get down on some kind of medium. I will attempt to share these moments with all of you to usher in a new era of recording ideas, now on a new medium.

Apple iPhone A Mini Review: Typing Is Hard

2007-07-11T16:34:00.000-04:00

So the other day I was on 5th avenue on my way to Tiffany's to return something. It was excruciatingly hot out so I took shelter at the Mac Store of course! This was my first time there and it was definitely pretty cool. The place is designed nicely and they have plenty of gadgets out for you to play with. I was drooling over the big Apple Mac Pro towers with their huge LCD monitors. They are so cool, but pricey as hell. I'm good with my iMac for now. They had plenty of iPhones out to play with so I grabbed one and started messing with it.

First thing I noticed is that it is thinner than I had thought and that the screen resolution looked really good considering the screen was touched by who knows how many sweaty, sticky, and dirty hands. The user interface was nice and similar to Mac OS X so it was very familiar. Next I tried watching some videos on YouTube. This was very easy to do and fast. The resolution of the videos was also very good. You see the videos in wide screen mode. However typing is a mess. You can't get the virtual keyboard to appear while in wide screen mode. That really pissed me off. Typing on the iPhone took a long ass time. Next I tried to connect to the internet and read my blog. Its wi-fi worked great but loading a page was slow. Typing into the search box was a pain in the ass. Eventually I was able to do it but honestly I don't think I would want to spend so much time to get to one site. Over time you can bookmark frequently visited pages. It would be good to import your bookmarks or integrate a social bookmarking tool like delicious.

Overall though I would say its pretty cool gadget and they were selling like hotcakes the whole time I was there. Its just too much for this blogger to justify. If they get better apps for it I would definitely consider it. In the meantime I'll wait for the next gen iPhone.

Cover Song: Foo Fighters - Virginia Moon (Acoustic Cover)

2007-07-31T08:54:00.000-04:00

As promised a while back. I want to post some of my original music creations on this blog as well as some cover songs of songs that I like and am learning to play. Here is the first one. This is a song by the Foo Fighters, it's called Virginia Moon and is from their last studio album In You Honor, which is very good if you haven't heard it yet. It was a 2CD set with side one classic Foo rock and side 2 a softer mellower more acoustic Foo. This is from disc 2 and features Nora Jones adding her beautiful, dreamy, raspy voice to Dave Grohl's soft, subtle singing. She has a great voice. Oh lawd please don't laugh.

Foo Fighters - Virginia Moon

New Jersey Guitar Show

2007-07-16T01:29:00.000-04:00

I love music, and I'm into guitars so I certainly did not pass up a chance to help out my old boss at the guitar show in Somerset NJ this past weekend, firstly because I don't have to spend a dime and secondly I contribute to the chillin fund. Now even though this was in Jersey, and I do hate NJ, I went anyway. To start off the directions to the place where awful. We got lost on the way there. I was the navigator so I guess I'm at fault and not the bad directions. I'm retarded for not MapQuesting that shit.

Guitar Show attendees are interesting creatures indeed. They are often of mature age, I would say 40's and up. Have long hair in a pony tail, unsuccessfully hidden under a baseball cap. The place was totally a sausage fest with only the occasional girlfriend, daughter, or wife. There were hardly any females that weren't there because of a male. What I'm saying is there are very few female guitar players out there.

The guys that come to these shows are pretty experienced players, many of them with young kids 8-12 that can easily play 5 times better than I can. Truly demoralizing. I take comfort in the fact that I could easily kick their ass. The place was loud with sounds of blues solos that all sound the same going on at the same time. Then of course there are the Jazz guys playing their endless runs that seem to go nowhere. I could hardly hear my self play. I had plenty of time to get good practice in though. I tried to remember how to play some songs that I like. I am notorious for forgeting how to play stuff.

I did see plenty of guitars I would like to get including a Sea Foam Green early 60s Fender Jaguar in good condition. The scene stealer of the show however was an actual 1958 Gibson Les Paul "Burst" in near mint condition. There are few of these left and even fewer available for sale. They were asking $550,000 for this one. It went unsold at this show. There was easily several million dollars in vintage instruments at the show not to mention all the cash that was circulating around. Security was basically a joke. I kept thinking about how I could pull a heist in one of these places, how seemingly easy it would be.

Pop Culture: Paris Hilton Being Released From Prison Today

2007-06-26T00:46:00.001-04:00

I know what you are thinking, "a post about Paris Hilton WTF?!" Yeah well this was easy to write about since I actually have a strong opinion on this. I pretty much hate Paris Hilton because she symbolizes for me so much of what is wrong with this world.

This world we live in is all upside down because the "haves" need it to be this way to keep the "have not's" at bay. Let me put it to you this way there are a handful of people controlling most of the world's resources including land, the education systems, governments, law enforcement, armed forces, media, and legal systems through an idea constructed by some men a long time ago called private property.

So a very small number of people own a vastly disproportionate amount of land and other resources and they like to keep it this way and actually make their wealth grow at the expense of everyone else, and what for? Well some have everything so they pursue power; others a life of limitless leisure and pleasure. Sounds like fun eh? I'm sure it is for the few that live that life, such as Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton is the most recognized poster child for all these super rich kids doing what they want because their families happen to own so much of the world. I don't mean spoiled kids whose parents are worth a few million, I'm talking about the big fish, the whales, the $500 million and up club. At least 2 billion people on the planet have to live in extreme poverty for this kind of inequality to be possible. But it's all worth it for these crazy kids, because they are having a blast.

Paris Hilton is not the worst of them, not by a long shot, she is just one of the most recognizable of them. So much so that she had to be sent to jail, because everyone knows who she is. To be sure other rich kids have gotten away with far worse but this time there was no getting out of it for Paris. She didn't even serve 30 days, but jail is no picnic for anyone. So word on the street is she supposedly going to pull an Angelina Jolie, that is become an activist for humanitarian causes like protecting the environment, helping the homeless, etc. What's going to be Paris cause? Imprisoned women.

She says she is going to do a 180 and stop putting on the dumb blonde act and really be her caring self. I'll believe it when I see it. If she does come through and its phony she will still be a bitch, but at least she will be helping out some people rather than no people. So she wants to help women from ending up back in jail. This is a good cause because the prison system leaves you so messed up that once you get out and serve your time it becomes that much harder to lead a life that can keep you out of trouble. Its damn hard to get a job once you are out of the big house. You become restricted to low paying jobs like Walmart where you will be made to work part time and get no benefits. At that point you might consider taking the risk and maybe steal something from your low paying job. If you get caught you face even harsher penalties. And since you are poor you will get shitty representation provided by the shitty state.

Here's to hoping Paris Hilton can do something for the greater good for once even if it just for PR. I hope it becomes trendy enough to expose this kind of "charity" for what it really is, so it can bring light to all the billionaire so called "philanthropists" that have much more sinister motives in where they donate their plunder.